December's Editor's Letter

Article

Editor's Letter

23 December 2016

I'm constantly interested in the idea of rituals, especially around the holidays. I've always had a lot of questions about the ways people cook things, and why. Those questions seem most urgent and most consuming now, during a season jointly ruled by generosity and excess. In December, you can't make too many cookies. You can't have enough people at your table. And you can't give enough delicious gifts away. From a hospitality point of view, with so many foods to wonder about, it's the most compelling month of the year.

Hoping to get some high-level advice for our holiday show, I asked some of the smartest food people I know for their favorite tips and tricks. Alex Guarnaschelli and her cookbook editor mom, Maria, share—and debate—the best recipes from their collection of over 4000 cookbooks. It's a mother-daughter interview I won't soon forget. I also talked with Anthony Bourdain about drinking alone, dressing like Santa and how being a chef stunted his ability to celebrate until recently. He has his 9-year-old daughter to thank.

Speaking of family, correspondent Rose Reid decided to confront hers (they're cooks) on air with a new idea: she’d be making their Thanksgiving turkey. Drama ensues. Other Prince Street guests, like Massimo Bottura, the world renowned chef of Italy's Osteria Francescana, Gail Simmons, from Top Chef, the fashion designer Lela Rose, and two of my favorite authors, Jonathan Franzen and Bill Buford, allowed us to eavesdrop on what makes their holidays tick, from their parties (over the top), to their donation strategies (check out Edible Schoolyard NYC), to their restaurant and Christmas dinner choices. And Hanukkah, too (#brisketfriedrice). Franzen even provides cautionary Christmas tales from German literature.

My own pre-holiday ritual involves driving deep into Brooklyn to locate a Russian caviar dealer named Sim, who always seems as if he’s gone into hiding. One year we found him in a cold-storage facility tucked beneath the borough’s rattling, elevated train tracks. Another, he’d relocated his roe to a warehouse closer to the sea. This year, who knows where Sim will be. But the holidays are fast approaching, so I'd better get looking.